Rewritten
by TWIantoJones
Summary: SPOILERS! READ BEFORE CLICKING LINK! Set AFTER "House of the Dead" radio play. Jack thought Ianto gone forever but something changed. DO NOT READ if you haven't listened to the newest radio play. CoE Fix-it. MiracleDay AU. Mentions of DW events. ONE-SHOT.


Rewritten

Summary: Set AFTER "House of the Dead". SPOILERS. Jack thought Ianto gone forever but then a crack was sealed. DO NOT READ if you haven't listened to the newest radio play. CoE Fix-it. Miracle Day AU.

A/N: I just listened to the new radio play and sorry, still want Ianto back. For real, for good. And I will continue to ask for him back and he will still be the MAIN focus of my stories. Always. Call me crazy, a "Ianto zombie" but for me, Ianto (as well as Owen and Tosh) ARE Torchwood. I can't imagine or watch a Torchwood without them. Oh, and I literally JUST finished listening to the play and am now writing this. So I'm a little emotional (though not as angry as my LAST one-shot). Remember... Beware of SPOILERS if you choose to read this.

O_O_O_O

Jack stood at the top of the hill waiting for Gwen. It was the day after the old pub, the House of the Dead, had fallen into the Rift. The Rift was sealed forever. Even if he had rebuilt the HUB, there was no Rift. He knew that aliens would still come to Earth but he didn't care. Not anymore.

Last night, only hours ago, he had seen Ianto. He finally said what he hadn't been able to say six months ago. He would no longer regret not saying it as Ianto died in the Thames House.

Thames House. House of the Dead. Ironic that Ianto had been taken from him in two separate places with House in the name.

It had been too cruel. Ianto, his beloved Ianto... He had gone to the pub praying to see him once more. Out of all the people that he had loved, Jack had only wanted to see Ianto.

He looked up at the night sky. Gwen and Rhys would be here soon. Once he had his wrist strap he would be gone. To hell with Earth. Even if all the world stopped dying, he wouldn't return.

"You forgot how to smile."

Jack jerked back and looked around.

"Ianto?"

Silence.

"Heh... Figures." Hours ago he had made his peace (or at least that was what he told himself now) with losing the one he loved more than anyone. Of course he would hear Ianto's voice as he was about to leave the place he had met the other man. Too many memories. But he would fight harder than he had ever fought before to keep them. Every single memory of Ianto would be his forever. He would do as Rose had done before. He would scatter the name "Ianto Jones" and little things- coffee, suits, red, stopwatch, sir, blue eyes, diary -across Time and Space. He would never forget.

"Jack..."

If this was Serieth trying to save herself and cross over again, she would fail.

Because Ianto, his Ianto, his love, the only one he would never forget... Because Ianto had sealed the Rift forever.

"Jack, just remember. Remember it all. Remember how we love each other."

"Not listening, Serieth."

"Jack... remember us. Remember ME."

"Sorry but I won't let you tarnish his memory. Ianto Jones, the bravest person ever to have lived, destroyed you." Jack smiled. "Ianto went out with a bang. You won't take that from him."

"Oh my God!"

Jack turned to stare at Gwen and Rhys. Rhys had gone white as a ghost and Gwen...

"Jack..." she whispered, her voice wobbling. "Oh my God..."

"Remember me. Please. Jack. If you were telling me the truth, then REMEMBER ME."

"Jack," Gwen whimpered.

Why was she afraid? Was Serieth getting to her now?

"Leave them alone Serieth!"

"Jack, it's ME. Remember ME. Please."

"Ianto is dead. Stop this, Serieth."

He turned and saw what Gwen saw.

Ianto stood before him in the suit he had worn when he died.

"Jack, please." Ianto reached out a hand. He was so translucent. The way that people thought ghosts really were.

"You're not him," Jack said, his voice cracking. Serieth was gone. Forever. How was this happening?

"I am. But you have to remember me for me to be real."

"But I DO remember."

Ianto smiled softly. "These last six months all you have remembered was the pain. That last day. You have to remember ALL of it."

"And what," Jack demanded. "Will THAT do?"

"'Time can be rewritten'."

"What?"

"That's what he told her. He also told her that anything that anything that has been forgotten can be remembered. And remembering is the key. You can bring me back. For real, for good. But you have to remember."

"Remember WHAT?"

"Everything. Everything about me."

"I do-"

"No you don't."

Gwen reached out and touched Jack's arm.

"There's something Jack," she said, desperation in her voice. "Something that you've forgotten."

But he remembered everything. Didn't he?

He searched his mind for something that he might have missed. Something small but significant. But what was it? And more importantly, would it WORK? Would he have Ianto back for good?

Memories of his life with Ianto from the night that they had met until just last night.

There was something he had forgotten though. Something too important. Something... But what?

"Jack, do you remember?" Ianto asked. "What have you forgotten? About me?"

The immortal Captain shook his head. "I don't know. I don't KNOW."

He wanted this to work. Last night he had tried to get Ianto to cross the threshold and return to the land of the living but instead Ianto had sacrificed himself. Ianto had chosen to seal himself into eternal darkness, surrounded by nothingness, in order to close the Rift and save the world.

"Feel around for anything that makes you what you are. The hidden and the forgotten. Tell me where you are. "

Jack started at the sound of his own voice. But he couldn't recall saying that.

"We have to wipe out the last 48 hours from our memories. Go back to who we were."

Jack suddenly remembered. He remembered one thing. One little thing. Twice since Gwen has joined Torchwood, since Ianto had walked into his life, there had been two days of their lives that they all had lost. The first time had been with John Hart. The second...

"Remember it Jack. It's so unimportant but so very important too. Because it's part of me. Of US."

"I never believed you." Jack stepped closer. "'I killed three girls'. That's what you told me." Jack placed his hand on Ianto's cheek; Ianto leaned into it. "But I refused to believe that. I knew, I KNOW that you're incapable of something like that. You're not a monster."

Light emanated from Ianto, his body becoming whole and NOT translucent. His skin was warm against Jack's hand. Not cold as it had been in the pub last night.

"Ianto?"

In response Ianto closed the distance between them and kissed him.

Gwen started crying and Rhys pulled her close.

A miracle so terrible that the world was in immortal danger screamed as it was suddenly stopped. A man named Oswald Danes would die and Gwen would not have nightmares of Torchwood.

Ianto pulled back and smiled.

"I love you," he said.

All because Jack had remembered something he had forgotten.

"I love you too," Jack choked out as joy filled him.

All because Ianto Jones had defeated his unwarranted, needless fate and was alive again.

"Oh Ianto!" Gwen pulled away from her husband (who was crying now too) and flung herself at her friend.

All because Ianto Jones lived.

"I still don't understand." Jack took Ianto in his arms again.

"You are as you are because a girl didn't want you to die," Ianto said. He placed his hands over Jack's shoulders. God, how he loved that coat.

"I am as I am because someone was told that if something that has been forgotten can be remembered, you can bring it back."

Ianto smiled and pulled Jack close.

"And Amy Pond remembered HIM. She brought HIM back and in doing so she sealed the Rift BEFORE I did last night. So there was a paradox. In order to heal that wound, you had to remember something about me that you didn't even know you'd forgotten."

Jack leaned back and squinted. "But that means that the memory creature... He's back."

"No," Ianto replied. "Adam was destroyed when the Rift closed. Our memories of him, the ones he forced on us can no longer be used as a means of creating him."

Jack really didn't care anyway. He had Ianto back, that was all that mattered.

"Why couldn't you just tell me what I needed to know?"

Ianto chuckled. "Because you had to remember on your own."

"Is this for real? You're really here?"

"Yep."

"For how long?"

"As long as you want me."

"Forever?" He didn't really mean it. Oh, he wanted forever with Ianto but he was just happy to have him back for a while.

Ianto said, "Always."

"Really?"

"Yes. You see, I died. That became a pivotal event. Just like the first time you died. And just as one girl brought you back, another brought ME back. There's just one catch Jack."

"I knew it. Okay, go on. What is it?" Jack braced himself for yet more heartache.

"We can't stay here on Earth. My being alive caused something big to not happen. I won't tell you what because it's too terrible to think about. But it's time for someone else to come and protect this planet."

"Wait!" Gwen cried. "You can't... You can't just leave. What about me?"

"Gwen." Ianto took her hand and smiled. "You have your whole life to live. You have a child to prepare for. And you won't have to be afraid because the miracle that never was can't hurt you. But Jack and I, we're two very impossible things and this planet isn't big enough for us to stay here anymore."

She bit her lip. "Will I ever see you both again?"

"Perhaps our paths will cross in the future." Ianto let go of her hand.

"Where are we going?" Jack asked.

"You were ready to spend eternity in the darkness. But there's something so much more. There's a whole big universe out there for us to see."

"Just you and me?"

"Just us. Forever." Ianto looked away, uncertainty in his eyes. "If you want. If you don't that's okay. I won't bother you."

"No. Just us." Jack kissed Ianto.

All across Time and Space a crack in the universe sealed itself and a man in a top hat and coattails stepped out of a blue box and into a wedding reception. As that man, a most remarkable man, stepped out of his box, Jack and Ianto left Earth for new adventures.

Forever.

Captain Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones. Two Fixed Points in Time and Space. Never forgotten by the ones who loved them and who they had loved in return.

END

A/N: Since CoE aired I have only rewatched series 1 and 2 of TW. I watched, for fiction purposes, the Janto/Ianto scenes of CoE but refuse to buy the DVD (it was recorded for me). I am not interested in Miracle Day and refuse to accept that Ianto can not be brought back. The universe is full of ways to bring him back without setting Serieth free or destroying the world. And I for one am not interested in a TW where Ianto, Owen and Tosh are all dead. I didn't watch for Jack or Gwen, I actually watched for James Marsters (John Hart) and ended up falling in love with the others. They kept me glued to the TV as the DVDs played. I cried when Owen and Tosh died and my heart broke when Ianto died. But CoE didn't excite me, didn't make me go "Yeah, Torchwood!". Miracle Day doesn't appeal to me. I will only watch the original TW, read and write stories that ignore or fix CoE/MD. As far as I'm concerned. Torchwood died at the end of "Exit Wounds". Agree with that or not, I hope you all enjoyed this story and will enjoy any I write in the future. As long as we remember them, Owen, Tosh and Ianto will always be Torchwood.


End file.
